Yesterday, the State Duma adopted on the third reading the new wording of the law "On Trademarks, Service Marks, and Appellations of Origin." Patent Specialists claim that from now on, the use of trademarks in bad faith will be impossible.

The current law "On Trademarks" uses wording from 1992. Specialists say that this law is a product of the Soviet copyright system. The authors of the new law, among which are Rospatent, The Anti-Trust Ministry, and patent specialists, state that the new wording of the law was drafted due to Russia's forthcoming admittance to the WTO, as well as the inconsistency between the current wording and today's patent practice.

The Coalition for Intellectual Property Rights, which unites major international companies (Coca-Cola, UDV, ICN, and others), played an important role in amending the law. According to the Coalition's leader Peter Necarsulmer, the new law is 90% consistent with the rules adopted by WTO member countries. The new law gives a clear definition of a counterfeit product (before this new law, only criminal legislation defined a counterfeit product) and enforces the protection of well-known trademarks. This enforcement includes the protection of registered trademarks from non-homogenous goods. For example, after the new law "On Trademarks" is put into effect, it will be easier for Baltika to litigate with companies producing cigarettes and vodka bearing the same name. The present wording envisages only the elimination of a disputed trademark from the label. Additionally, within the new wording, the trademark owner will be entitled to demand compensation in the range of 1,000-50,000 minimal salary rates.

The new law provides for the possibility of annulling the registration of a trademark if the right holder has not been using it for three years since the registration date. Currently, this period is five years. It will be much easier to combat the so-called brand-piracy if a company registers to its name the trademark, under which goods are already being sold in the market. It will be possible to annul this registration if either the Anti-Trust Ministry or the court recognizes it as an act of unfair competition.

Companies, which are often in conflict with Rospatent, are not apprehensive about the new wording of the law. "The new law has significantly increased the administrative resource factor. Unlike Rospatent, we count ten steps for the future," says Viktor Chernyshov, General Director of Mospatent, which took out patents for the trademarks Forbes, Kirin, Interbrand and others. For example, a year ago, Mospatent sold the Interbrand trademark, which belongs to the international marketing network Omnicom, to a Russian agency having no relation to Omnicom.

"Companies producing products under the trademarks confusingly similar to the famous trademarks will be the first victims," Vadim Uskov, director of the legal firm Uskov & Partners, commented on the new wording of the law. Patent specialists cite actions of the Menshevik company producing the chewing gum Life is… Life, which, the Turkish company Dandi Sakyz says, is similar to their chewing gum Love is…

The draft law has been submitted to the Federation Council. Developers believe that if the Council and the President give their approval, the law may become effective before the end of 2002.